MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/06/13 -- FiveStars, provider of the most widely used loyalty automation platform for small and medium businesses, announced today that it now offers all-in-one loyalty and gift cards. Starbucks pioneered this approach and recently announced a staggering $1 billion loaded onto its loyalty cards in Q4 2012; FiveStars is bringing this concept for the first time to the SMB community with its own combined loyalty and gift card platform.

The FiveStars cards are able to store pre-loaded values while engaging customers with loyalty components. This encourages gift-card recipients to become repeat customers even after the balance is spent. This new feature for the FiveStars Loyalty Automation Platform, which helps small businesses easily acquire, grow, and retain their customers, further cements the company as a pioneer for automating loyalty for small and medium businesses.

One business currently using FiveStars' gift card feature is Hwy 55 Burgers, Shakes & Fries, a 100-store quick-service restaurant chain based in North Carolina. FiveStars and Hwy 55 launched FiveStars gift cards in Hwy 55 stores in December and will be rolling out an integrated loyalty and gift card program across all stores on February 6th. Hwy 55 has already generated over $50,000 in gift card revenue from over 3,000 customers.

"We are excited about partnering with FiveStars," said Neal Dennis, COO of Hwy 55 Burgers, Shakes & Fries. "We knew we wanted a sophisticated but affordable loyalty program across all of our locations, but we wanted a solution that could also function as a gift card. Our gift cards, powered by FiveStars, have already generated significant gift card revenue, and now with our all-in-one loyalty and gift card program it's easy to turn these customers into repeat visitors."

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According to FiveStars co-founder Victor Ho, "Integrating gift cards with our loyalty cards creates a powerful lever for turning loyalty programs into customer acquisition engines. Fortune 500 companies like Starbucks have already bridged this gap, but we're making it available to smaller restaurant and retail chains. It's another step in our efforts to automate all aspects of loyalty for SMB."

FiveStars is the only loyalty automation platform that can integrate with merchants' Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, enabling businesses to improve their customer service and reward customers based on actual spend. Unlike check-in apps such as FourSquare and Belly, the FiveStars Loyalty Automation Platform enables SMBs to measure customer spending and reward them accordingly. The FiveStars platform also allows businesses to use data on spend or visits to proactively target customers with personalized and relevant email and text message campaigns to drive repeat visits and customer referrals.

About FiveStarsFiveStars provides the most widely used loyalty automation platform for small and medium businesses, making it easy for them to acquire, retain, and grow customer relationships. FiveStars is the only vendor that can integrate with merchant Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, enabling businesses to improve their customer service and automatically reward and engage customers after the sale based on their spend. FiveStars also gives consumers the freedom of a single card to earn store-specific rewards across thousands of businesses. Visit www.FiveStars.com.

About HWY 55Hwy 55 Burgers Shakes & Fries is all about the American classics that people know and love, with a background of old-time rock n' roll music and '50s diner décor setting the stage for a menu that features Highway 55's famous hand-pattied cheeseburgers, fresh-made frozen custard, mouthwatering cheesesteak sandwiches, shrimp burgers and much more. Hwy 55 currently has 100 locations, mostly in the eastern part of North Carolina, and currently has 510 locations in development. Visit www.HWY55Burgers.com.

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